hinges bad?
Senior User
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 156
Likes: 0
If you're in a pinch you CAN loosen them up and adjust them. Basically your door will still sag, but you'll realign it so when it's sagging it is actually correct (hope that makes sense). You can loosen the bolts behind the door- use a 1/4" swivel and go from between the door and fender with the door open. Then lift the door and tighten them and check. Just make small adjustments.
Your door will still have play, but it'll be aligned so that even though it's sagging it will close correctly and sit correct. The only way you'll know the difference is if you lift up on the door.
Might as well do it right though. Either replace the pins or the hinges altogether. I personally didn't have good luck replacing the pins, but others have. I just ended up grabbing some replacement hinges from a junkyard and haven't had any problems in the past couple years.
Your door will still have play, but it'll be aligned so that even though it's sagging it will close correctly and sit correct. The only way you'll know the difference is if you lift up on the door.
Might as well do it right though. Either replace the pins or the hinges altogether. I personally didn't have good luck replacing the pins, but others have. I just ended up grabbing some replacement hinges from a junkyard and haven't had any problems in the past couple years.
Senior User
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 277
Likes: 0
From: Ft. Worth, Texas
If you're in a pinch you CAN loosen them up and adjust them. Basically your door will still sag, but you'll realign it so when it's sagging it is actually correct (hope that makes sense). You can loosen the bolts behind the door- use a 1/4" swivel and go from between the door and fender with the door open. Then lift the door and tighten them and check. Just make small adjustments.
Your door will still have play, but it'll be aligned so that even though it's sagging it will close correctly and sit correct. The only way you'll know the difference is if you lift up on the door.
Might as well do it right though. Either replace the pins or the hinges altogether. I personally didn't have good luck replacing the pins, but others have. I just ended up grabbing some replacement hinges from a junkyard and haven't had any problems in the past couple years.
Your door will still have play, but it'll be aligned so that even though it's sagging it will close correctly and sit correct. The only way you'll know the difference is if you lift up on the door.
Might as well do it right though. Either replace the pins or the hinges altogether. I personally didn't have good luck replacing the pins, but others have. I just ended up grabbing some replacement hinges from a junkyard and haven't had any problems in the past couple years.
Thread Starter
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Laughing Gas
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 850
Likes: 1
From: Bethel Park, Pa
well it looks like im headin out to the junkyard soon lol, i need a new front bumper anyway, so i will just get hinges while im there
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More Turbo
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 630
Likes: 4
From: Northeast
Like yours did, before you adjusted the hinge bolts. You actually do have sag--you just corrected for it, with the adjustment. Go outside, and lift up on the bottom rear corner of the door, noting the amount of movement.
Now, repeat on the pass. side. Note the difference in the amounts of movement between the two doors. That difference is the amount of sag (unless, of course, your passenger door received equal usage, like if you always have a passenger on board--then they could have equal amounts of sag, and the comparison between the two will not show the specific amount on the driver's side.)
IOW, if you'd truly had "no sag," then there would have been nothing to adjust for, in the first place, because your door would have been shutting properly--know what I mean? If you had to adjust it, it's because there was sag.... You compensated for it, but it's still there.
I need to do a pin/bushing replacement on the D/S of my 1997--another thing on "The List."
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